While many NBA teams are raining money down on free agents from other teams, the Nuggets are focusing their initial attention on retaining veteran forward Darrell Arthur, who is an unrestricted free agent. The two sides were expected to talk Friday.
Given the dollars being thrown around, Arthur is in for a nice pay raise, be it from the Nuggets or another team. He’s never made more than $3.5 million in any one season but now could be staring at an $8-10 million per year pay day. Perhaps more.
The Nuggets aren’t the only team interested. The Washington Wizards are reported to have interest in Arthur, who opted out of the last year of his contract with the Nuggets to become a free agent.
Arthur had one of the best seasons of his career in 2015-16 with averages of 7.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.2 assists in a career-high 21.7 minutes per game. He shot 45.2 percent from the field and a career-high 38.5 percent from 3-point range.
Meanwhile, as expected, point guard D.J. Augustin will not return to the Nuggets. He agreed to a reported four-year, $29 million contract with Orlando. The Nuggets already have a reserve point guard under contract, Jameer Nelson. and were not going to pay for two.
The Nuggets are also interesting in retaining veteran backup forward Mike Miller.
